State players near top of several of NFL Network’s Mayock rankings

We still have more than two months of hype, workouts and jockeying for players in the 2017 NFL Draft, but when NFL Network’s Mike Mayock talks/writes draft, we perk up.

There are several reasons for this: he’s a former player in the league, he constantly talks to front office personnel about what they may be thinking all off season long, and he’s been the NFL Network’s college prospect guru for several years now with a proven track record.

So, on Tuesday, when Mayock released his first position by position rankings, we were curious how many Florida state school prospects would be there. The short answer: a bunch.

Right off the bat, Mayock weighs in on the “Dalvin Cook vs. Leonard Fournette” debate and ranks the FSU all time leading rusher first ahead of the LSU thorough-bread back. Make no mistake, both appear to be explosive, big play capable players at the next level, and you likely will see lots of their highlights on Sundays this fall and for years to come.

While Mayock doesn’t rank any state players in his initial top 5’s at WR, he does rank Miami’s David Njoku,who our Ari Russell wrote about here recently, as his second best TE behind OJ Howard of Alabama. Mayock also does have FSU’s Roderick Johnson as the fourth best offensive tackle in his first five.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, he has the Gators Caleb Brantley as the second best interior defensive linemen behind only all-world Bama lineman, Jonathan Allen. At linebacker, there are more Florida stars, as he has Jarrad Davis and Alex Anzalone ranked at 4 and 5. And DB Teez Tabor completes the Gator quartet and is also fourth on his list at that position.

Again, this will fluctuate some and Mayock could drop guys completely out or move them up, like where Cook is, to #1 spot. But, ultimately, it’s what the actual teams think of these guys can do that matters. Still, these inital rankings show, the depth of NFL talent still exists in Florida.